Getting spanked hard for lack of craft.

I got some feedback on Descending Pitch that I would really have preferred to ignore if just one person said it. Unfortunately I heard the same thing in various forms from both writer friends and the most novice of readers.

Did everyone dislike the villain? Yes.Did they like the victim? Yes.Did they understand the plot, the complications and the consequences? Yes.

So what was wrong? Across the board, everyone told me they wanted to like the villain more.

*The mind boggles.*

But I can't ignore it when I got the same complaint all the way across the board. So now I'm struggling to build more depth into the villain of a story that is already 15% too long.